亏 (kuī): to lose (money), to have a deficit, to be deficient, to treat unfairly

亏 (kuī) is a Chinese character meaning “to lose (money).” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 二 (structural). It ranks #1722 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 5Radical: 二 two3 strokesFrequency #1722二 structural

Definitions

  1. to lose (money)
  2. to have a deficit
  3. to be deficient
  4. to treat unfairly

Stroke Order

1
2
3

Practice writing 亏 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 亏

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
多亏verbduō kuīthanks to6
亏损verbkuī sǔndeficit6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
幸亏adverbxìng kuīfortunately
亏欠verbkuī qiànto have a deficit
吃亏verbchī kuīto suffer losses
亏待verbkuī dàito treat sb unfairly
功亏一篑phrasegōng kuī yī kuìlit. to ruin the enterprise for the sake of one basketful
亏本verbkuī běnto make a loss
亏空nounkuī kōngin debt
亏心事nounkuī xīn shìshameful deed
亏得adverbkuī defortunately
盈亏verbyíng kuīprofit and loss
理亏verblǐ kuīin the wrong
自负盈亏phrasezì fù yíng kuīresponsible for its profit and losses (of organization)
吃哑巴亏verbchī yǎ ba kuīto be forced to suffer in silence
货问三家不吃亏huò wèn sān jiā bù chī kuīsee 貨比三家不吃虧|货比三家不吃亏
不听老人言,吃亏在眼前bù tīng lǎo rén yán , chī kuī zài yǎn qián(idiom) ignore your elders at your peril
41
Total compounds
34
As first character
46
As last character
20
As middle character

亏 appears in 41 compound words: 34 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 20 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 亏 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

损sǔn
0.6793,374 co-occurrences
盈yíng
0.577718 co-occurrences
扭niǔ
0.509273 co-occurrences
窄zhǎi
0.49715 co-occurrences
欠qiàn
0.471196 co-occurrences
净jìng
0.460152 co-occurrences
幸xìng
0.421334 co-occurrences
吃chī
0.413218 co-occurrences
严yán
0.409254 co-occurrences
额é
0.402198 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

吃哑巴亏chī yǎbakuīHSK 7+

to be unable to speak out about one’s grievances

verb
扭亏为盈niǔkuīwéiyíngHSK 7+

to turn loss into gain; to be back in the black

phrase
有亏职守yǒu kuī zhí shǒuHSK 5+

(to be guilty of) dereliction of duty

phrase
自负盈亏zìfù-yíngkuīHSK 7+

to assume sole responsibility for profits and losses (of an enterprise etc.)

phrase
功亏一篑gōngkuīyīkuìHSK 5+

to fall short of success due to the lack of a final effort

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解亏字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè kuī zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "亏" (kuī) helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

LtnFeb 2026

亏43亿照发股利!中钢每股拟配现金0.15...

kuī 4 3 yì zhào fā gǔ lì ! zhōng gāng měi gǔ nǐ pèi xiàn jīn 0 . 1 5 . . .

Lose 4.3 billion dividends! China Steel intends to distribute cash per share of 0.15...

中時新聞網Feb 2026

《钢铁股》中钢去年每股亏0.29元 47年以来赤字 拟配息0.1...

gāng tiě gǔ zhōng gāng qù nián měi gǔ kuī 0 . 2 9 yuán 4 7 nián yǐ lái chì zì nǐ pèi xī 0 . 1 . . .

"Steel Stocks" China Steel lost 0.29 yuan per share last year and has been in the deficit since 47 years, and the proposed dividend is 0.1...

EtnetFeb 2026

【企业盈警】极智嘉(02590)料去年亏损降至最多3000万人币,经调整转亏为盈

qǐ yè yíng jǐng jí zhì jiā ( 0 2 5 9 0 ) liào qù nián kuī sǔn jiàng zhì zuì duō 3 0 0 0 wàn rén bì , jīng diào zhěng zhuǎn kuī wéi yíng

Jizhijia (02590) expects its loss to drop to a maximum of 30 million yuan last year, and it has been adjusted to turn a loss into a profit

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

从亏损到赚钱 速腾聚创靠机器人翻身

cóng kuī sǔn dào zhuàn qián sù téng jù chuàng kào jī qì rén fān shēn

From loss to money, Suteng Juchuang relies on robots to turn over

Investing 香港Feb 2026

DHC第四季财报每股亏损优于预期,股价上涨

D H C dì sì jì cái bào měi gǔ kuī sǔn yōu yú yù qī , gǔ jià shàng zhǎng

DHC's fourth-quarter earnings report reported better-than-expected earnings per share, and shares rose

Tatoeba

亏你想到这种馊主意!

Kuī nǐ xiǎngdào zhèzhǒng sōuzhǔyi!

Of all the silly ideas!

Tatoeba

多亏你我胃口都没了。

Duōkuī nǐ wǒ wèikǒu dōu méile.

Thanks to you I've lost my appetite.

Tatoeba

多亏了顺风,我们很快就到了那个小岛。

Duōkuī le shùnfēng, wǒmen hěn kuài jiù dào le nàge xiǎodǎo.

Thanks to the favorable wind, we soon reached the island.

Tatoeba

多亏了这场大雨,蔬菜价格直线上升。

Duōkuī le zhè chǎng dàyǔ, shūcài jiàgé zhíxiàn shàngshēng.

Due to the heavy rain, vegetable prices have risen.

Character Family

二 Radical Family — Characters sharing the two radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced kuī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 亏 (kuī) mean in Chinese?
亏 (kuī) primarily means "to lose (money)." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1722 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 亏 and 赢?
亏 (kuī) and 赢 (yíng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 亏 (lose) vs 赢 (win).
How many strokes does 亏 have?
亏 is written with 3 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 亏?
The radical associated with 亏 is 二 (two). This radical appears in many characters related to two.
What are the components of 亏?
亏 is composed of: 二 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 亏?
Common words with 亏 include: 多亏 (duō kuī, "thanks to"); 幸亏 (xìng kuī, "fortunately"); 亏欠 (kuī qiàn, "to have a deficit"); 吃亏 (chī kuī, "to suffer losses"); 亏待 (kuī dài, "to treat sb unfairly"). There are over 41 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 亏 (kuī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kuī: 愧 (ashamed), 窥 (to peep), 魁 (chief), 馈 (gift, feedback). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 亏 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 亏 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 亏 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.